Buildings are arguably the biggest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about 40% of total energy consumption and 39% of all carbon dioxide emissions. While energy efficiency and smart building movements have reduced building energy consumption per square foot in recent years, the 3% annual increase in the sheer number of square feet more than off-sets the efficiency gains. The answer is relatively simple – more smart buildings. Complete smart building solutions originally based their offering on reducing energy consumption. Cost-savings from energy efficiency provided the base return-on-investment, while health, productivity, maintenance, and so on, provided the added value. When smart building adoption did not match expectation and the strategy changed. Today, energy-savings are still important but have fallen into the shadows somewhat as those human-centric value added services took the spotlight. The evolution of technology helped facilitate that shift, and while it is difficult to compare success it still appears that smart […]